An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

Hello, sir. On behalf of myself and the rest of your message board--I place I'm happy to call my favorite hangout on the internet--I want to say that we really do appreciate everything you've done. Well, at least those of us who aren't miserable jerks appreciate everything you've done. I think I admire what you've accomplished with the Coachella festival as an environment to experience music more than I even admire the work of the legendary musicians who perform. You have made an event that becomes the most important weekend of the entire year to a lot of the people who attend, many of us knowing from that very first year that we'd never want to miss your festival again.

I know you get a lot of complaints every year it sells out from people who just have a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that they couldn't get tickets and want to blame you. In fact, I came to this board originally in 2007 specifically because I WAS one of the left out and I felt bitchy about it. After securing a ticket and hanging around a bit, I gained an appreciation for the fact that you can't make everyone happy. I've witnessed a wide array of very, very dumb suggestions by angry ticket-less newcomers with some half-baked idea about how the ticketing could be improved in some way that would have prevented the great injustice of their own personal failure to get a ticket. With full acknowledgement of the fact that I'm joining their ranks by typing this, I'd like to make a suggestion...

Each year you've been trying to develop more and more tactics to create a more united, dedicated population of attendees. The move to three day passes helps ensure that people going are truly there for the full Coachella experience, not just driving out for the day because they like a band or two. The drastic increase in ratio of campers to non-campers boosts the feeling of camaraderie and a shared experience. In response to the unfortunate circumstances of 2010, you switched to a wristband system that made it much more difficult to crash the gate or forge copies or scalp the passes at all. Then last year, the RFID chips were introduced and the accounts to register your wristband along with those various check-in sites around the fest not to mention forced car camping passes to be used by the purchaser only, I assume again to help reduce the chance of these passes falling into the hands of people who don't really want to attend.

Well, with all these systems you've put in place it seems to me that you could easily create a much more motivating reason to register one's wristband: some limited advanced pre-sales for anyone who already has a coachella.com account from previous year's attendance. Some might call it elitist, say that it's unfair to try to give an advantage to those who have already been to Coachella, that it's selfish to believe we deserve any kind of priority instead of a bright-eyed virgin Coacheller. Why should our good time be any more important than theirs?

I can't completely refute that sentiment, honestly. There's a point in there, but at the same time you have created something that means the world to a small part of the population, something that only very recently exploded in popularity to the degree that even though you doubled the number of tickets available it's now selling out faster and faster every year. And those of us who were there loyally back when a sold out Coachella was a shocking event are getting frighteningly unlucky buying tickets 11 months in advance without even seeing the lineup. We'd sign up for tickets through the end of the decade if there was an option, we just want to get to see our favorite place.

I'm not trying to say that you owe us anything for the years we've put in. I'm not trying to say that we're in any way better people than those who haven't attended. But if all these changes you've been making are intended to try to preserve the purity of your fest and us your grateful fans, why not provide a pre-pre-sale where those of us with coachella.com accounts can get a crack at a small piece of the ticket allotment before the rest of the world? Is there anything that wrong about taking a small step to try to help guarantee as many of your tickets as possible are getting to only people who really want to attend, who you know already appreciate it in fullness?

Lots of bands have fan presales. They realize that as they get extremely popular it becomes harder and harder for their most diehard and loyal followers to get decent tickets because there are so many casual fans vying for the same spots and the ticketing systems just can't handle the load in any way that consistently helps freaks like us who wait until EXACTLY 10 Am to hit refresh and made our frontgate accounts in advance and took every precaution possible, but still ended up instantly in a never-ending wait.

Your festival has gone from being The Pixies to The Beatles in all of three years. Could you maybe consider throwing a little something our way? We were there for you when you were still playing club shows and touring in your van.

Sincerely,
Randy F. Wang

P.S. I got a ticket actually, but I still think this is a good idea.

Originally Posted by amyzzz

Hannah, I don't know that pigs have big weiners, and my early 20's facination with dogs because of weiner size, I think. If that helps.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

Why do you assume I wouldn't give a shit that you approve? I appreciate it. Frankly, as I was typing it I'd been up all night working and I was second-guessing myself pretty hard on whether or not it was coming out as a barely coherent ramble.

Anybody wanna takes bets of the over/under of tl;dr instances that follow?

Originally Posted by amyzzz

Hannah, I don't know that pigs have big weiners, and my early 20's facination with dogs because of weiner size, I think. If that helps.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

I read it, and I agree 100%. I think that would lessen some of the bitching, not all of course because as we know people will always have something to bitch about, but at least the core long term fans will have a better chance not to be bumped by scalpers just trying to make some extra cash.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

A slightly edited version of something that I wrote up and was completely dissed in the BM thread....along the same lines.

Originally Posted by PlayaDelWes

Wouldn’t a logical solution for popular annual events like Burning Man or even Coachella be to adopt a model similar to season tickets for sporting events where long-term loyalty is rewarded?

A certain number of passes would be allocated to ‘subscribers’

There would be a list of subscribers and each would have a specific account number

Those subscribers would be guaranteed 2 tickets every year so long they purchased the prior year

If an owner declines to purchase one year, they are off the list and their account is closed

Aspiring subscribers would first go on a waiting list until spots on the subscribers list open up

The remaining passes would be reserved for a public on-sale for non-subscribers

Since the ‘subscribers’ list doesn’t exist yet, the trick would be establishing the initial list. There’d be some tough decisions and inequities at first, but with the right amount of planning and validation of prior attendance, it can be done fairly.

Originally Posted by dj12inches

What makes me qualified? I've watched EVERY fucking episode of American Idol, and every single episode of The Voice...Forget that I won departmental music awards when I was in the 8th grade choir.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

I didn't think it was an original idea, but the idea is less important than the way you make your case. Also, you really over-complicated the idea IMO. Nobody should be guaranteed any tickets, I bet at least 30 percent of last year's attendees would have opted for tickets in that system again this year and if they all took the two they're reserved we'd be down to practically no tickets left. I'm just saying like, 15k in the coachella.com registered presale, then maybe another 40k in the regular presale the following week, then the rest in the general onsale. Or divvy up the remainders however they want, it's not my business what they do after that, I'm just saying 15k seems like a fair fan presale allotment but I'd be happy with anything.

Originally Posted by amyzzz

Hannah, I don't know that pigs have big weiners, and my early 20's facination with dogs because of weiner size, I think. If that helps.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

I kind of am surprised that they haven't yet instated some kind of loyalty program already, honestly. Now that they're able to better keep track of who is attending, it seems like just a matter of time before this does happen to some degree.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

Great idea. Not to disrespect all newcomers but there is certainly a contingent that just want to make the scene. We talked to some girls this year who showed up around 10:00 p.m. on Friday just for Swedish House Mafia. The one thing old timers have going for them is if they keep coming back they're almost all coming for the music. I'm not getting crotchety about Coachella becoming a scene, but I like the notion that people who want to keep coming back for the music won't get shut out. And yes, I did get tickets but I had to "settle" for week 2.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

Originally Posted by philabuster

Great idea. Not to disrespect all newcomers but there is certainly a contingent that just want to make the scene. We talked to some girls this year who showed up around 10:00 p.m. on Friday just for Swedish House Mafia. The one thing old timers have going for them is if they keep coming back they're almost all coming for the music. I'm not getting crotchety about Coachella becoming a scene, but I like the notion that people who want to keep coming back for the music won't get shut out. And yes, I did get tickets but I had to "settle" for week 2.

I met a girl in line in 2004 from my college who said she was only there for Radiohead and was leaving the next day. There's been people like that every year.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

I'd also like to say that this plan would provide some REAL incentive to people to participate in this wristband registration thing introduced last year. I didn't bother with mine because the existing advantages to doing so were nothing that really interested me--I don't use Four Square, the prizes you could win by checking in with your wristband at those locations around the Polo Fields couldn't possibly be worth having to spend time at Coachella trying to "accomplish" anything (Coachella is my one weekend out of the year where I have no responsibilities and nowhere to be except wherever I feel like going and I wouldn't trade that for any prize), and my phone was so banged up I didn't even attempt using the Coachella app 'cause I was just praying it would do basic functions like text and call reliably. THIS kind of motivation though I guarantee would drive registration of those wristbands through the roof, and you'd know that anybody doing it obviously cared about the fest enough to read all the materials provided on how to make the most out of the Coachella experience by participating in the community.

Originally Posted by amyzzz

Hannah, I don't know that pigs have big weiners, and my early 20's facination with dogs because of weiner size, I think. If that helps.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

And for the record it shouldn't matter how many years you've gone. This isn't about rewarding people for being the most OG Coachella goer, it shouldn't be any kind of class system. It's just a way of saying to those of us who have really given a piece of our heart to the wonderful thing you've created a little bit better chance of buying a legitimate ticket the proper way. Lord knows none of us want to support after-market ticket sales or scalping. If nothing else, the worry that we might be getting ripped off is a seriously nightmare-inducing scenario for anybody with hundreds of posts on your message board, and we know GV doesn't want people supporting the scalpers. But I don't think any of us would deny that if we got shut out on both onsales and couldn't find a ticket from any of our fellow Coachella addicts, we'd have no choice but to turn to craigslist/Stubhub 'cause the only alternative would be missing Coachella, which for me personally at least would guarantee a massive depression from January til weekend 1 at which point it would be escalated to suicide watch until around July or so.

Originally Posted by amyzzz

Hannah, I don't know that pigs have big weiners, and my early 20's facination with dogs because of weiner size, I think. If that helps.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

Also, and this probably isn't cost feasible yet but in a year or two might very well be: how bout if the turnstiles where you have to scan on your way into the fest could display the name registered to that wristband to further cut down on scalping/people sneaking in by all sharing the same wristbands like the people who were camping next to us this year? Perhaps even a Glasto-style system where you get a picture ID in your wristband gift box that you have to flash as you go through so that the security staff could check your name against the name showing on the turnstile display?

Originally Posted by amyzzz

Hannah, I don't know that pigs have big weiners, and my early 20's facination with dogs because of weiner size, I think. If that helps.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

Fight with me in the other threads, dude. On the chance Our Leader actually reads this and sees the support the idea has, I'd rather it not get derailed by some silly feud. Let's keep things civil, it's in all our best interests.

Originally Posted by amyzzz

Hannah, I don't know that pigs have big weiners, and my early 20's facination with dogs because of weiner size, I think. If that helps.

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

Originally Posted by RotationSlimWang

Perhaps even a Glasto-style system where you get a picture ID in your wristband gift box that you have to flash as you go through so that the security staff could check your name against the name showing on the turnstile display?

Only problem with this is it would make it so somebody who had to sell their ticket for a legitimate reason -- say a military person gets deployed out of country, or someone breaks their leg a couple weeks before the fest -- would basically be unable to do so.

Support your idea all the same, obviously, and appreciate that you're proposing ideas like the above that could help to further eliminate the specter of scalping.

Originally Posted by Larry Farnsworth

"I assume you guys aren't familiar with all of the shit on this lineup but if you listened to shit radio stations you would be."

Re: An Open Letter To Paul Tollet

On behalf of myself and the rest of your message board--I place I'm happy to call my favorite hangout on the internet--I . I I I .

I I I I I I've I'm I'd like to make a suggestion...

Each year you've been trying to develop more and more tactics to create a more united, dedicated population of attendees. I assume

elitist Why should our good time be any more important than theirs?

I.I'm I'm

The Pixies to The Beatles

Sincerely,
Randy F. Wang

P.S. I got a ticket actually, but I still think this is a good idea.

IIIIII MEMEMEMEMEMEME.

You'r not any kind of dictator for anyone here...you are not a leader. Paul is not a leader. Its a fucking music festival bud. You need to calm down.
Let the dude run his show and be there if you'd like.

and your comment about the Pixies to the Beatles...Is that supposed to mean the Pixies are the ground and the Beatles are the heavens or what? The Beatles are fucking done. Just like the small festival you once knew and apparently felt like you controlled. Get off your ego trip and be a fucking set of ears and eyes like the rest of the crowd. After all, thats all you are. If anything Paul should make the festival louder to drown out your crying.